Our heartbeats could be used instead of traditional passwords to unlock
smartphones, tablets and cars using a new device being developed by Canadian
company Bionym.

Passwords scrawled on a scrap of paper are easily lost, jumbled letters and numbers are quickly forgotten and, with “password” still the most popular password, it’s no wonder that identity theft has become a million-dollar enterprise.

But now security experts may have hit upon a type of identification that can't be lost, forgotten, or stolen: your heart.

With usernames and passwords fast becoming unreliable, companies are now turning towards our internal features as an authentication alternative.

One of the new developments in this line of research is the Nymi wristband being developed by Canadian firm Bionym.

The hi-tech gadget monitors the unique pattern of the wearer’s heartbeat, which can be used to wirelessly unlock smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and cars. It may even be used to pay for shopping, or act as a replacement for your credit card PIN number.

According to Foteini Agrafioti, co-founder of Bionym, the Nymi identifies people “not just (by) their heart rate, but the actual shape of their heartbeat.”

For nearly fifty years, cardiologists have been aware that, like fingerprints, a person’s heartbeat is unique, and is affected by heart shape, size, and position in the chest.

However, unlike fingerprints, a heartbeat is near impossible to replicate. While fingerprints can be reproduced with jelly or recovered from surfaces, the wristband is reportedly 99 per cent accurate.

Karl Martin, Bionym’s CEO, says for the Nymi to be fooled, a person would not only have to steal the device but imitate the wearer’s heartbeat, something that can’t be preserved in jelly.

Although exercise or drug-taking may impact the reading, Martin toldNew Scientist that “the system tolerates regular variation”.

Alternative forms of identification are nothing revolutionary. Iris scans use infrared to recognise the intricate and unique structure of an individual’s iris and are now part of an airport’s security process.

Google has filed a patent for users to pull facial expressions – from a frown to eyebrow movement – to unlock their Android phones, preventing the existing Face Unlock system from being duped by photos. As an added security measure, “3-D rangefinder” lasers may be used to study the contours of the face.

Proteus Digital Health has created a pill that is powered by acid in the wearer’s stomach that creates a signal picked up by mobile phones.

Meanwhile Motorola is developing “Biostamps”, silicon tattoos with an electronic circuit, as a more permanent – if not more shocking – alternative to passwords.

Despite all these other developments, Bionym has come closest to finding a solution to the impracticality and unreliability of passwords.

The Nymi can be preordered on 4 September for $79 (£50) for the first 250,000 orders, or $99 (£63) after, with shipment beginning in early 2014.

Developers hope the new technology will soon replace the endless list of forgettable and often embarrassing passwords consumers are increasingly forced to remember, unlocking, as the product’s site states, “a world of possibilities.”